John Barnes

Page Updated: 2/12/01

John Barnes

Finity

pbk 11 Jan 01

Earth Made of Glass

Orbital Resonance

Kaleidoscope Century

Apocalypses and Apostrophes

Books By John Barnes

About the Author

Bibliography

Paperback - Millenium (2001)

Finity
Earth in 2063: Adolf Hitler won World War II. There are intelligent cars and personal ballistic transports… but there is no United States of America. The USA appears to have almost vanished: no one discusses it much and when they do, they all remember different details of the past.
Like everyone else, professor Lyle Peripart isn't even aware that he can't keep the USA in his mind for longer than a minute or two, until the enigmatic tycoon Geoffrey Iphwin offers him a job. Iphwin thinks that Lyle's speciality, abductive reasoning, might he the key to solving the mystery - and he's not alone.
Lyle soon finds himself the target of several murder attempts, but he also discovers some unexpected aces up his sleeve. His fiancé turns into a deadly shot when needed, even though she then recalls nothing of what happened. But she does recall the Allies winning World War II… and America surrendering to the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
But now it's vital they piece together the clues to discover what really happened to the United States of America - and what's happening to it now.
‘Barnes has great fun fooling around with a variety of unexpected alternate universes in this clever scientific adventure novel’ Publisher's Weekly
'A virtuoso piece of probability juggling' Kirkus

First British Edition Orion (1998)

Paperback - Millenium (1999)

Earth Made of Glass
Nominee for the 1999 Arthur C. Clarke Award
'One of the most inventive and diverting SF novels' Washington Post
The stunning sequel to the Arthur C Clarke and Nebula Award nominated A Million Open Doors …
At the furthest reaches of the galaxy exist the Thousand Cultures, societies scattered across 31 inhabited worlds in 25 star systems. The Inner Complex - which includes Earth - has been able to exert control over the Thousand Cultures because it contains 90% of all human population and because all traffic must pass through it. But humanity is expanding and the complexes are beginning to fight over access to the frontier worlds. At the frontline - Quidde, base of Chaka Home: a culture based on a Millenialist black American sect claiming spiritual descent from Chaka Zulu's army - Giraut and Margaret must prevent the outbreak of a repeat of ancient history: a war of hatred as three cultural factions threaten a struggle with echoes of the bloodiest genocides of the 20th century.
John Barnes has a PhD in Theatre from the University of Pittsburgh and teaches theatre at Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado. He is the author of a number of award nominated science fiction novels and co-authored The Tides of Tiber with astronaut Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin.
Critical acclaim for John Barnes
'Massively scaled… Beguiling and inspiring' Time Out
'One of the most inventive and diverting SF novels. Such zest, energy and intelligence… Highly entertaining' Washington Post of A Million Open Doors
'Dazzling… sheer storytelling power combined with hard-edged speculative science' Booklist of Mother of Storms

British Pbk Original - Millenium (1998)

Orbital Resonance
For the last thirty years the survivors of the Collapse have endured a scrabbling existence. Mother Earth is near exhaustion and the wealth of the inner solar system will need to be mercilessly plundered if the planet is to be saved before the resource curve flattens out taking humanity down with it.
Like her spaceborn classmates, Mel Murray, raised on the Flying Dutchman, likes to think the crisis on Earth has nothing to do with her. But she's in for a rough surprise when Thee arrives bringing all the dying planet's problems with him. Fighting to prove herself against the unknown, in the person of Thee, is just a small part of the challenge that destiny has in store for Mel, just the start…

Critical acclaim for John Barnes
'A compelling, often disturbing, ultimately very moving trip through a near future altogether unlike the present' Poul Anderson
'The most able and impressive of SF's rising stars' Washington Post
'Beguiling and inspiring' Time Out
'Does a fine job of treating big questions n a human scale, while drawing the reader effortlessly into an engaging story' Robert Charles Wilson
'The hallmark of a master. A must-read' Los Angeles Reader
'Strong, thoughtful, passionate. Barnes carries us away by giving the sweep of history a deftly personal touch' Orson Scott Card
'Took me back in the best way - the kind of book I wasn't sure they wrote any more' Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction
'Exuberant and hugely energetic… Most emphatically a Big Book' Locus

Paperback - Millenium (1998)

Kaleidoscope Century
Welcome to 2109, Joshua you made it again…
Joshua wakes in 2109 at the age of 140, in a strong youthful body and with no memory of the past, to find himself at the centre of a vast and deadly conspiracy.
Getting any answers means searching the hypertext records of his life for the last remaining shreds of his identity. Working through a century's history reveals the mutAIDS plague, Eurowar and the industrialisation of space. The key to his own mystery rests with the virus that means that at the end of every fifteen years he lives Joshua wakes ten years younger.
'A major sf writer of the 90s' Washington Post 'Massively scaled ... Beguiling and inspiring' Time Out

Paperback - Millenium (2000)

Apocalypses and Apostrophes
In the new collection from Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Award nominated author John Barnes, never-before-seen stories combine with favourites from the pages of Asimov's and Amazing and a selection of thought provoking essays that cut to the core of what SF is all about.
Whether examining the alarming possibilities of VR sex, the paradox of our apparent solitude in a teeming cosmos or taking us back to the universe of Orbital Resonance this is a collection that shows one of SF's greats at the height of his powers.
‘Since the days of Verne and Wells, the best SF has engaged readers with bold ideas about tomorrow… Barnes bursts the frontiers of this tradition’ David Brin
‘John Barnes convinces. He may well be the writer on whom the mantle of Robert Heinlein falls.’ Poul Anderson
‘Barnes carries us away the way Heinlein used to’ Orson Scott Card
‘One of the most able and impressive of SF’s rising stars’ Publishers Weekly
‘One of the most talented current SF writers’ The Washington Post
‘Sheer story-telling power combined with hard edged speculative science’ Booklist
‘Apocalypses and Apostrophes offer additional reason to welcome this writer to the front ranks of contemporary science fiction’ The New York Times Review of Books

About The Author
John Barnes is an assistant professor of theater at Western State College of Colorado. He has lived in various other parts of the United States.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Finity (Gollancz, 2000) Millenium Pbk Jan 01

Earth Made of Glass (Orion, 1998) Millenium Pbk Apr 99

Orbital Resonance (Millenium Pbk, 1998)

Kaleidoscope Century (Millenium, 1995) Millenium Pbk 1998

Apocalypses and Apostrophes Millenium Pbk Apr 00

Mother of Storms

A Million Open Doors